• Corpus ID: 117660148

Antimatter induced fusion and thermonuclear explosions

@article{Gsponer2006AntimatterIF,
  title={Antimatter induced fusion and thermonuclear explosions},
  author={Andr{\'e} Gsponer and J P Hurni},
  journal={arXiv: Plasma Physics},
  year={2006}
}

• A. Gsponer, J. Hurni
• Published 15 July 2005
• Physics
• arXiv: Plasma Physics

The feasibility of using antihydrogen for igniting inertia l confinement fusion pellets or triggering large-scale thermonuclear ex plosions is investigated. The number of antiproton annihilations required to start a thermonuclear burn wave in either DT or Li2DT is found to be about 10 21 /� 2 , where � is the compression factor of the fuel to be ignited. In the second part, the technologies for producing antiprotons with high energy accelerator systems and the means for manipulating and storing microgram amounts of antihydrogen are examined. While there seems to be no theoretical obstacles to the production of 10 18 antiprotons per day (the amount required for triggering one thermonuclear bomb), the construction of such a plant involves several techniques which are between 3 and 4 orders of magnitude away from present day technology. Considering the financial and energy investments needed to p roduce antimatter, applications will probably remain confined to the military domain. Since antihydrogen-triggered thermonuclear explosives are very compact and have extremely reduced fallout, we conclude that such devices will enhance the proliferation of nuclear weapons and further diffuse the distinction between low-yield nuclear weapons and conventional explosives.